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Health Minister Deb Matthews has confirmed she personally signed off on a contract that is allowing the CEO of eHealth Ontario to leave early with a $400,000 package.

Greg Reed, who is resigning before the end of a four-year contract, joins a growing list of eHealth executives who’ve departed the troubled organization with a hefty severance.

“Yes, I would have signed the OIC for that,” Matthews said Tuesday, referring to an Order in Council. “It’s a package and there are many ways to structure packages.”

eHealth Ontario had previously spent more than $1 million on severance for a nine-member executive team, including $850,000 on the CEO, to clear the decks for a new regime led by former CEO Sarah Kramer.

Following a well-publicized scandal with consultant expenses at eHealth Ontario, Kramer was sent packing in 2009 with a $317,000 golden handshake.

Tory MPP Michael Harris said taxpayers have spent almost $3 billion on the electronic health records organization with little to show for it.

“Clearly, the culture of entitlement over at eHealth continues to run rampant, from COOs flying on taxpayers’ dimes to get a PhD to now this extremely huge severance package for little over two years of service,” Harris said. “Ontarians continue to see the waste run rampant at eHealth.”

Matthews said eHealth is obliged to pay Reed severance, even if he leaves early, but he is getting “not a penny more” than he was entitled to under the contract.

“Having said that, I think it’s really important that we do look at compensation in the broader public sector, including the health-care sector,” Matthews said.

“I think we need to understand that if we want the best, we’re going to have to pay a high price to get the best. But we also have to respect taxpayers.”

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